By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



327 



to be pursued in this inland county, so far removed from the coast, 

 it will probably surprise them to be told that there are certain re- 

 tired villages in the heart of the downs of North Wiltshire, and 

 not very far distant from Swindon, whose whole population, some 

 seventy years ago, was employed in little else; and who, in con- 

 nection with others on Salisbury Plain, and others again on the 

 Dorset or Hampshire coast, carried cargoes of contraband goods by 

 the little-frequented ridgeways or trackways, or paths little known 

 to and seldom used by any but themselves, which ran along the edge 

 of the downs ; and so handed them on to the very middle of England, 

 doubtless dispersing some of them on the way, and driving a very 

 lucrative business. The trade of the smuggler (it must be remem- 

 bered) was by many in those days not thought very dishonest, and 

 there was a dash and peril attending it which in great part concealed 

 its ugly character ; but when these same villages of smugglers be- 

 came also villages of sheep-stealers, and the two trades were carried 

 on by the same gang, they not only verified the old Wiltshire say- 

 ing :— 



" Salisbury Plain, Salisbury Plain, 

 Never without a thief, or twain," 



but these lawless occupations were a severe tax upon their neighbours, 

 and so, in process of time, they were denounced by all honest men, 

 followed up and put down with a high hand, and while a few of the 

 ringleaders were sent to the gallows, considerable numbers of them 

 were transported for life ; and I am old enough to remember in one 

 of those villages being struck with the extraordinary number of 

 widows, until it was explained to me that they were only so called 

 by courtesy, their husbands having (as it was euphoniously described) 

 " gone abroad ; 93 though it might have been added, " at their 

 country's expense," and " to Botany Bay ; " and " for the term of 

 their natural lives." 



To return to our subject : and to pass on to superstitious traditions 

 not connected with illness or death, I may mention, as an instance 

 of this kind, that ou taking refuge some years since from a storm 

 of rain in a cottage in a village adjoining my own, I remarked a 



